The U.S. government will provide $25 million in funding for motor technology research and development

The U.S. Department of Energy will provide $25 million over the next five years to help develop advanced energy-efficient motor technologies. The Advanced Manufacturing Office (AMO) of the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Energy Conservation and Renewable Energy has identified four areas of technology that it believes can improve motor efficiency and reduce motor weight while breaking the limitations of traditional conductive metals and electrical steel. These technologies are: high performance thermal conductors; low loss silicon steel; high temperature superconducting wires; and other technologies that provide performance. These technologies can help U.S. electric motor users save nearly 44 watt-hours of electricity annually, which is about 1.6% of total U.S. electricity consumption; in addition, these technologies can also lay the foundation for future energy savings in variable speed motors, and can also improve clean energy use. Motor efficiency, saving energy for wind, solar, electric vehicle and battery producers. Under the Next Generation Electric Machines: Enabling Technologies program, DOE plans to select 8 to 12 projects designed to develop the keys needed to improve efficiency and reduce weight costs while disrupting the conductive metals and silicon-injected electrical steels used in traditional electric motors technology. These projects will focus on recent advances in nanomaterials research and improved performance of high temperature superconductors. They will also encourage research, development and deployment of high-magnetic, high-frequency insulating materials and lead-free, low-loss bearing technologies essential for high-speed motors. The electric motor technology program is part of the Obama administration's double investment in clean energy research and development. The DOE's broader Clean Energy Manufacturing Program seeks to enhance the competitiveness of U.S. clean energy product production and promote national manufacturing competitiveness by increasing the productivity of energy. Electric motors account for about 70 percent of U.S. manufacturers' electricity consumption and nearly 75 percent of total U.S. electricity consumption.